Our Family of Flowers

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Today is my little man's birthday.  We spent a portion of this afternoon making his cake.  He asked for a Vanilla Football cake with chip icing.  I think we did a pretty good job.

Kiersten's Birthday Cake

Kiersten and her friend celebrating Kiersten's 10th Birthday

Kiersten helped make her birthday cake from scratch with Mommy. This is a tradition with each of my children. Only the Birthday child gets to help with the cake. We make the cake from scratch (even the frosting) and the Birthday child and I decorate it to their liking.

This Sunday is Kiersten's 10th birthday.  It is hard to realize how much she has grown in the last 10 years.  When she was born she was barely 6 pounds and now she is a young lady- wipe a tear : (

She is becoming a beautiful person

This was Kiersten at age 5. The picture next to it is me (her mommy) when I was 5- see any similarities?

Well this year, Kiersten decided she would like a sleepover/ birthday party (yeah me : ) I told her she can have a few friends over. The night will be filled with giggles, games, and lots of snacking : )
I figure we can order pizza, play twister, have a movie night, and just have F-U-N. Though I am sure she will be swooshing me out of the room (she is getting older and not wanting Mommy to participate in friend time). We are still planning the activities and I understand she is her own person, and declaring that she needs more independence, so I will help her come up with a list of things that SHE and her friends can reference if they need something to do.

This is how we raise our children- to be their own person and to be an independent, self-thinking individual BUT once they start to declare their independence - it is tough to let them go.

So, to Kiersten- Don't grow up too fast and I promise to always be your "Mommy" : )

Well, after much contemplation we have come up with our homeschool name.  We have decided on, "Inner Light Christian Academy".  Which represents the light within each of our children, that God is our inner light, that God will lead the way, that each of our children is special in their own way (their inner light). 

We are new to homeschooling, so the process of gathering resources and organizing methods is ongoing.  We plan to start up homeschooling by October.  We are a Christian family and feel as if God has led us to homeschooling. 

We have found ourselves leaning towards the eclectic approach to homeschooling, which is an assortment of varying methods.  I basically took the best of numerous methods and techniques and incorporated them into the kid’s curriculum. 

For Kiersten (10 year old) we will use Switched On Schoolhouse for Language Arts, Math-U-See for Math (this is her weakness in studies and she will need to go back to go forward), BackYard Scientist, and Christian Kids Explore for Science (Earth Science), We will be learning about Geography and about the Presidents this year.  We will also use a lot of Supplements, Hands on techniques, and Real Life events in our curriculum. 

For Steven (my 8 year old) we have decided to use LIFEPAC as well as Hands on and Real Life experiences for Language Arts.  I know he is not where he should be in Language Arts, so I am basically going to teach Kailey (my 6 year old and First Grader) and Steven together on in the Language Arts section, once Steven gets whatever he missed along the way we will accelerate his learning in this area of studies.  We also signed up for Pizza Hut’s “Book-It” Program, so this is serving as a great incentive for him to read to me ; ) For Math we will also be using Math-U-See.  Steven’s ultimate subject is Math- this is his strong point.  For Science (another strong point and interest for him) we will be using Unit Studies as well as the same techniques we will be using for Kiersten (Christian Kids Explore and BackYard Scientist).  The same as applies for History- Unit Studies/ Group Studies.  The kids expressed an interest in Egyptian times.  We recently visited the Denver Museum of Nature and Science and saw a real mummy- this of course sparked the kid’s interest.   

For Kailey- I am incorporating kindergarten and first grade into the same year.  She is my smarty, so she can definitely accomplish this goal.  We will use many supplements and make it fun for her.  At this age it is more about laying a foundation for the love of education so that it can be built on.  This is my goal with all of my children- I want them to love gaining new knowledge every day.  We have decided on LIFEPAC for Language Arts, and Math-U-See for her Mathematics.  Kailey will learn Science and History within Unit Studies.  We have various computer games (i.e. Jump Start and Jump Start World), that the kids get to use within their studies as earned time (technology time).  Meaning, they have to do their work to get computer time, which they so not want to miss out on ” ) They love their ”limited” computer time, so this is a great incentive for them.  We also adore the Leap Frog dvd learning aids (letter factory, code word caper, etc…).  In addition, we have found www.starfall.com and their supplement books- which she enjoys very much.  There is a PBS show called “Super Why’s” that we enjoy learning from.  We of course also watch Sesame Street.  Kailey also enjoys the Leap Frog Leap Pad system and we have found a phonics set that goes with it- yipeeee. 

 I have all the kids in extra activities- For instance, Kiersten and Kailey are in Girl Scouts (I am their troop leader- we have 16 girls all together).  Steven is in Cub Scouts.  We are at the library at least 2 to 3 times a week.  The kids are involved in a church program every Tuesday night, which they absolutely L-O-V-E.  We picked up their first bibles yesterday.  Kiersten choose a girl one (all pink).  It also has girl stuff in it and what would you do scenarios.  Steven choose a bible with science experiments, crafts, recipes, etc…. and Kailey chose a bible for young readers, which uses pictures and storylines.  I am sooo excited that GOD is so much a part of our lives.  We also go to the American Girl club once or twice a month- which uses wholesome teachings in their literature.  Of course, we go to church every Saturday night too : ) We enjoy days off at the park, touring the local museum/ planetarium, and aquarium amongst other things.  In November our local Plains and Conservation Center is doing a Laura Ingalls (Little House on the Prairie) scenario and real life experience, so that is definitely on our list of things to do.  They get to learn how pioneers lived during that time era, which is perfect since we are watching the “Little House on the Prairie” from Season one to Season 10.  We reserved the dvds at our local library and just picked them all up the other day- GOTTA LOVE THE LIBRARY : )